Souragne project

[Stygian Inquirer]

Well, Undead Cabbage, according to the RL:CS, Souragne can grow: rice, yams, sugarcane, and cotton. Cotton or sugarcane could be what the plantations are but the climate is right for Cocaine. Cocaine is grown primarily at the base of the Andes because of the rain shadow effect but it can thrive just as easily in a humid jungle. Coffee would also work as would Tobacco.

I don't think though that Anton's plantation was special in any way. He didn't start harming his workers until he was a zombie lord and all he did was kill them and raise them. It is not like he kept them wired to mess with their memory as there is no evidence of that but I do agree though that there should be some new flora.

[Undead Cabbage]

I don't think though that Anton's plantation was special in any way. He didn't start harming his workers until he was a zombie lord and all he did was kill them and raise them. It is not like he kept them wired to mess with their memory as there is no evidence of that but I do agree though that there should be some new flora.

Very true. Not to mention if I may recall the RL:CS didn't mention 'special' flora such as Wraithroot. Those things were typically found in the Gazateer.

Not necessarily Cocaine itself, but something like it (and the others that I mentioned). However, I think it's best to maintain a certain grim attitude when it comes to narcotics. The last thing any RL GM needs are a bunch of characters that are obsessed with 'smoking up'. Nothing that will make the players giggley: the dangerously addictive side could out-shine the positive effects. Otherwise, players will just abuse something like that.

[Stygian Inquirer]

Well, in Hazlan, they have opium, so narcotics have been brought into play, but I think that players are more mature than that. Opium for example has a few beneficial effects as well as the side effects so maybe Cocaine would be used in a similar way.

[Undead Cabbage]

Ah, I had forgotten about opium. Good call.

Cocaine is also a good flora to work with because if I may recall, it was actually chewed by the indigeonous (sp?) people of columbia as a slight feel good, and as a matter of tradition. Amoung the Souragnian people, we could have a similar tradition. In fact, prior to Anton's coming to the realm of dread, the powered form of this plant may have not come into existance. But when Souragne came to be in Ravenloft, the use of the plant was corrupted by Souragne's higher classes to create a 'super-drug' that would make them a fortune (likewise, at the expense of the common folk, since Cocaine is also rediculously hard to prepare).

[Don Fernando]

Well, Undead Cabbage, according to the RL:CS, Souragne can grow: rice, yams, sugarcane, and cotton. Cotton or sugarcane could be what the plantations are but the climate is right for Cocaine. Cocaine is grown primarily at the base of the Andes because of the rain shadow effect but it can thrive just as easily in a humid jungle. Coffee would also work as would Tobacco.....

I don't wish to be impolite or rude but allow me to make a correction to that statement. Cocaine is not grown, it's made. Actually is a chemical product that is made out of Sulfuric Acid, Kerosenne (among others quemical stuff) and Coca leaves. Now coca leaves grow almost everywhere (it's kind of a parasite plant), but I can assure you it doesn't grow in swamps or muddy terrain a.k.a. Souragne.

Besides the picture of Anton Misroi playing the role of a Columbian Drug Lord isn't too appealing to me.

Cheers
Fernando

[Undead Cabbage]

I don't wish to be impolite or rude but allow me to make a correction to that statement. Cocaine is not grown, it's made. Actually is a chemical product that is made out of Sulfuric Acid, Kerosenne (among others quemical stuff) and Coca leaves. Now coca leaves grow almost everywhere (it's kind of a parasite plant), but I can assure you it doesn't grow in swamps or muddy terrain a.k.a. Souragne.

Besides the picture of Anton Misroi playing the role of a Columbian Drug Lord isn't too appealing to me. Wink

I'm pretty sure Stygian was referring to the actual Coca leaves. But trully said, its derived from the leaves of a plant (and then mixed with quite a few, unpleasant substances).

Souragne definately needs some sort of 'special' flora, though.

[Jasper]

How about a plant that when boiled and distilled with a touch of blowfish posion acts like the real walking dead potion used by the real voodoo priests of Hatai. When drunk by a unsupecting victum he/she gains several of the traits of a real undead - Imunity to pain, imunity to mind effecting spells, imunity from exhaustion/featgue and becomes a mindless slave to who ever adminstered the potion. The mind of the slave however is still intact and is subject to fear/horror/madness rolls.

The slave need only minimal food and water to servive but must never be allowed to taste salt as the substance nutralizes the potion.

[The Giamarga]

The showboat in the book: La Demoiselle du Musarde started out in the core. It's french-ish name puts it's origin in Dementlieu or Richemulot. (The Musarde river runs through both) I don't know if there was any further background to the ship. Haven't read the book in ages.

Yup. Here's the passage from page 8 :

Dumont had named the boat for the Musarde, the river on which he'd grown up. La Demoiselle had not been the only paddleboat on that river but it had been the best.

So it seems that there are more paddleboats on the Musarde. Dumont built the boat himself btw.

[Stygian Inquirer]

I don't wish to be impolite or rude but allow me to make a correction to that statement. Cocaine is not grown, it's made. Actually is a chemical product that is made out of Sulfuric Acid, Kerosenne (among others quemical stuff) and Coca leaves. Now coca leaves grow almost everywhere (it's kind of a parasite plant), but I can assure you it doesn't grow in swamps or muddy terrain a.k.a. Souragne.

Besides the picture of Anton Misroi playing the role of a Columbian Drug Lord isn't too appealing to me. Wink

I'm pretty sure Stygian was referring to the actual Coca leaves. But trully said, its derived from the leaves of a plant (and then mixed with quite a few, unpleasant substances).

Souragne definately needs some sort of 'special' flora, though.

I was referring to the Coca leaves.

[The Giamarga]

Well it absolutely has to have the legendary zombie powder. From whatever plants that is produced by the houngans/voodans/bocors.

[Undead Cabbage]

How about a plant that when boiled and distilled with a touch of blowfish posion acts like the real walking dead potion used by the real voodoo priests of Hatai. When drunk by a unsupecting victum he/she gains several of the traits of a real undead - Imunity to pain, imunity to mind effecting spells, imunity from exhaustion/featgue and becomes a mindless slave to who ever adminstered the potion. The mind of the slave however is still intact and is subject to fear/horror/madness rolls.

The slave need only minimal food and water to servive but must never be allowed to taste salt as the substance nutralizes the potion.

This is actually a much better idea, Jasper, now that I think about it. Where a highly addictive stimulant would sort of fit souragne, typically the 'Special' plant for each domain will relate to either the DL or the over all theme of the domain (i.e. Wraithroot helps with ghostsight, Meeklebern grows only in blooded soil and helps one sing). Not to mention, as Giamarga speculated on, this has some real-world relations.

The salt is a nice touch to (salt often used to stop decay).

[Boccaccio Barbarossa]

While I know this seems to have been dealt with already, I just wanted to mention something about the slavery.

I undertsand the concern that it will be misinterpreted by those who lack the maturity to undertstand that you can't have voodoo without that colonial influence and the sort of "secrecy" that was practiced to keep it out of sight from the colonial powers. But, this would not be the only case of racism or discrimination in Ravenloft. 2 examples that spring to mind readily:

1. Falkovia actually has a rule regarding an increase in OR of +1 for all characters which are essentially non-white.
2. Hazlan is divide along strict racial/caste lines.

i think that the best solution would be to say that the plantation working serf population is in bondage - this was veru common in the carribean after the British Empire banned slavery in the 1st half of the 19th century. They would basically relocate some of the population to "work off their debts". so they (the workers) would be paid, but way less than was reasonable.

I think that as long as we make it plain that the oppressors are EVIL and the oppressed victims of that evil, it works in Ravenloft without upsetting the limited politcal correctness of the setting. That would imply that slavery is evil and the moral issue is resolved in a very clear cut sort of way.

Just a thought, as I myself prefer to keep the likely "real world" power dynamics in place when I run/play Ravenloft.

[Don Fernando]

How about a plant that when boiled and distilled with a touch of blowfish posion acts like the real walking dead potion used by the real voodoo priests of Hatai. When drunk by a unsupecting victum he/she gains several of the traits of a real undead - Imunity to pain, imunity to mind effecting spells, imunity from exhaustion/featgue and becomes a mindless slave to who ever adminstered the potion. The mind of the slave however is still intact and is subject to fear/horror/madness rolls.

The slave need only minimal food and water to servive but must never be allowed to taste salt as the substance nutralizes the potion.

I second this idea. It goes straight to the point: home-made Zombies/Slaves. Maybe even we can add that with time, the person who inhales/drinks this powder eventually becomes a real Zombie, even a new type of Zombie....I don't know...Swamp Zombie or something similar.

[The Giamarga]

Voodoo Zombie!!!

So are those voodoo zombies still alive but drugged or do you mean real undead zombie-variants. Or are both possible... I would say the former as you can get real D&D zombies easily enough with spells by getting a few cleric or sorcerer or voodan levels.

Or should this poison/powder be at least semi-magical, so that not anybody can create it, only a Bocor ? Perhaps a new lower level spell should be involved in the creation of either the voodoo zombies or the powder itself.

[TwiceBorn]

How about a plant that when boiled and distilled with a touch of blowfish posion acts like the real walking dead potion used by the real voodoo priests of Hatai. When drunk by a unsupecting victum he/she gains several of the traits of a real undead - Imunity to pain, imunity to mind effecting spells, imunity from exhaustion/featgue and becomes a mindless slave to who ever adminstered the potion. The mind of the slave however is still intact and is subject to fear/horror/madness rolls.

The slave need only minimal food and water to servive but must never be allowed to taste salt as the substance nutralizes the potion.

I second this idea. It goes straight to the point: home-made Zombies/Slaves. Maybe even we can add that with time, the person who inhales/drinks this powder eventually becomes a real Zombie, even a new type of Zombie....I don't know...Swamp Zombie or something similar.

I third the idea. Perhaps the creature could be an update of the Voodan Zombie featured in the Book of Souls?

Speaking of updates, the Book of Sorrows likewise features what I consider an excellent selection of creatures that should be updated to 3.5 stats, if their original authors are willing to give their consent (I especially like the nightcrawler). QtR #1 features the Living Bayou, and the Book of Sacrifices has an interesting secret society (the Zanango Society).

i think that the best solution would be to say that the plantation working serf population is in bondage - this was veru common in the carribean after the British Empire banned slavery in the 1st half of the 19th century. They would basically relocate some of the population to "work off their debts". so they (the workers) would be paid, but way less than was reasonable.

This could work with some of the ideas presented previously in this thread on slavery/serfdom.